Learn to Play Bridge in Six Weeks

I want to be upfront about something: I was not cool before I learned bridge, and I am not cool now. But I am now uncool with a 15–17 point notrump opening, which is a very specific kind of uncool, and the people who share it are among the nicest, sharpest, most competitive people I have ever been quietly beaten by.

You may have heard bridge is hard. You heard right. So is parallel parking, and you managed that. (Did you? Don’t answer. We don’t judge here. We save all our judging for the opponents’ bidding.)

Here’s the whole game in one sentence: you get thirteen cards, you try to win tricks, and you have a partner who sits opposite you and is legally not allowed to tell you what they’re holding. That last rule is the source of roughly ninety percent of the fun and all of the arguments.

You don’t need any experience. You don’t need to bring a partner, which is good, because the partners you already have would almost certainly use this as an opportunity to tell you what you’re doing wrong. We’ll give you a fresh one.

How it works

Every week there’s a short lesson. I want to stress short, because nobody signed up to hear a man in a lanyard explain spades for ninety minutes. Then you play real hands at tables with other beginners, while experienced helpers drift around answering questions like “Is it my turn?” and “Why is everyone looking at me?” (It is. And because it is.)

You also get a workbook full of exercises and card diagrams so you can practise at home. Alone, with a friend, or with a spouse who has said “I’d love to learn bridge one day” every year since the Hawke government. Now’s their chance. Bring the workbook to dinner. They’ll be thrilled.

What you’ll learn

1. Wk1
   Cards, tricks, trumps and counting points Ace is 4, King is 3, Queen is 2, Jack is 1. That’s the maths. If this seems easy, great. If it seems hard, also great: you are now as good at bridge as I was at 40.
2. Wk2
   Opening the bidding and responding to partner Bidding is a conversation in a language with fifteen words, conducted by two people who aren’t allowed to look meaningfully at each other. You’ll learn five-card majors and opening the better minor, which sounds like a wedding toast but isn’t.
3. Wk3
   Notrump bidding, Stayman and transfers The 1NT opening, plus Stayman and Jacoby transfers. A transfer is when you bid hearts to tell partner you have spades. I know. I said the same thing. Then I tried it and now I bring it up at parties, which is part of why I don’t get invited to parties.
4. Wk4
   Competing: overcalls, doubles and preempts The opponents will not simply let you have a nice auction. So you learn to interrupt theirs. Overcalls, takeout doubles and weak two-bids: legal, sanctioned rudeness. It’s the most fun you can have while being polite to strangers.
5. Wk5
   Big hands, slams and planning the play The strong 2♣ opening, Blackwood for asking about aces, and bidding slams, which is how you win big and, occasionally, how you learn humility in front of an audience. Also: making a plan before you play to the first trick. I skipped this step for years. Learn from my years.
6. Wk6
   Defence, scoring and your first duplicate session Opening leads, signalling to partner (with cards, not eyebrows), and how scoring works. Then you play a real duplicate session with bidding boxes and everything. Your hands will shake slightly. That’s normal. Mine still do, and it’s mostly the coffee.

By the end of the course you’ll be able to

• Bid confidently in SAYC, and mostly understand what partner meant (100% understanding is not available to anyone, including partner)
• Plan and play a hand as declarer, and defend with standard leads and signals
• Keep score and follow duplicate procedure: bidding boxes, alerts and the scoring device, which is less frightening than it looks
• Walk into a supervised or novice session at the club straight away, and sit down like you belong there. Because you will.

Why bother?

Because bridge is a game for life. It’s sociable, it’s challenging, and it gives your brain the kind of workout your phone has been quietly preventing for a decade. No two hands are ever the same, so you can never fully master it, which sounds like a drawback and turns out to be the entire point.

Millions of people play bridge. After six weeks you’ll understand why. After six months you’ll be lying awake replaying a hand you absolutely should have made. Welcome. We’ve saved you a seat.